“Cabaret” is coming to Wilmington’s Playhouse on Rodney Square for the first time, but it will be familiar territory for actor Carl Pariso, a 2015 University of Delaware graduate.

He hopes friends and teachers will be rooting for him at each performance of the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical that runs Tuesday through Sunday. And he also hopes to have time to walk around campus and Newark’s Main Street and “relive my college years.”

Pariso plays Clifford Bradshaw, “an American writer in Europe trying to find inspiration and experiences to write about,” he said.

University of Delawrae graduate Carl Pariso plays Clifford Bradshaw, “an American writer in Europe trying to find inspiration and experiences to write about."

Submitted by Carl Pariso

After forays to London and Paris in 1931, this bisexual is “drawn to the sexual liberations of Berlin and gets lost in this whole debaucherous life until he wakes up to the politics” of the oppressive rise of Nazism.

The scantily clad dancers in the Kit Kat Club and innuendo in the dialogue make the show better suited for older audiences, he said.

“I like to think of myself as a leading man,” said Pariso, 24, 5-foot 10-inches and clean cut. "There are different types, like the underdog, lost soul. And then there’s the confident, dames-in-distress type. I err more on the side of the lost soul.”

Pariso started performing at a young age, playing and writing songs for rock bands. For a career, he sought “a broader, most classical training” in music composition. A poster in the choir room of his high school (Pope John XXIII in Sparta, New Jersey) led him to UD, where he “fell in love with the campus, the professors and the town.”

Jennifer Margaret Barker, his theory/composition teacher and one of his biggest role models, suggested that he perform more musical theater to better understand how to write it.

Barker called Pariso’s success so far a “testament to his dedication, passion and talent. I am very proud to say that I have spent the last six to seven years enjoying watching him perform in many different shows, and I look forward to eventually seeing him perform in his own show.”

While at UD, Pariso immersed himself in both music composition (his major) and theater performance (his minor), with his apartment a convenient 30-second walk from the music building. Membership in the UD Chorale enabled him venture much farther afield, including a tour of France.

He also fell in love with performing, with it dominating his time and energy. He still has writing projects, he said, citing one with his brother Frank and another with his roommate, Zach Rogers.

He met Rogers during the Harrington production of “Urinetown,” and last year they launched the Oh That’s New Theater Company, dedicated to breaking the “systemic norms of traditional theater.”

“Carl is one of the most driven people I know in theater,” said Rogers, a playwright, actor and English graduate from UD. “I guarantee he’ll be one of the people who works his way to the top.”

Pariso ends the five-month “Cabaret” tour in May, and he’ll return to West New York, New Jersey, where he’ll work on their theater company’s debut, scheduled in July in Manhattan.

He also hopes to return to his job as a movie and TV photo double, where he’s called in to gesture and move for reshoots in the place of busier actors. One consistent gig has been for Martin Wallström on USA’s “Mr. Robot.”